New mailboxes are intended to reduce dog bites, vandalism

Mar. 3, 2013

A new mailbox plan is devised to cut down on problems with dog bites for carriers such as Brenda Beattie. News-Leader file photo

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Jeff Drake

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Brenda Beattie, the Springfield mail carrier who has been bitten 12 times by dogs, is so attuned to dogs that she can hear the sound that a dog’s toenails make on the sidewalk.

Jeff Drake, Springfield’s new postmaster, has a plan he said could help carriers like Beattie. He wants to install locked, vandal-resistant mailboxes that won’t be right next to people’s houses. More than 1,000 letters have been sent to northside homes and businesses, including those on Beattie’s route, and some addresses in southeast Springfield.

“It’s better for the customers,” Drake said. “Their mail is locked up in a box. It’s obviously better for our mail carriers because they’re not walking up to people’s front porches where so many of these dog attacks happen.”

The new mailboxes, known as cluster box units, will be installed where people on the route agree to it. Those who don’t will still receive mail directly at their homes. The mailboxes, which come in groups of 12 or 16, can cut down on problems with vandalism and theft and with dog bites.

The post office also touts the boxes as being community gathering areas and helping to cut down on unnecessary trips to the post office because the locked boxes are secure.

But Beattie isn’t sure how effective the new mailboxes will be, since they will be installed only where the residents agree to them.

“To me it’s either all or nothing,” Beattie said. “I just don’t see how they’re going to be effective. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Mark Sims, a regional administrative assistant for the National Association of Letter Carriers, said residents should be able to keep their door-to-door delivery if that’s what they want. He said the union has some questions about changing the service for the elderly and the handicapped. He said there also could be safety problems.

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“There are just a lot of concerns we have,” said Sims.

Beattie has multiple scars on her right ankle and leg from dog bites. Once, she had to get rabies shots. She was last bitten in January while delivering mail to a house near Grant Beach Park with three dogs. The inside door was open, and all three dogs managed to get through the storm door and come at her.

“I was spraying and backing up,” said Beattie who carries pepper spray for protection. “The guy came out and was trying to get them off of me. I kept two of them off of me, but the third one got through and bit me. It’s hard to keep three dogs off of you at the same time.”

In fiscal 2010, Springfield ranked 23rd in the nation for dog attacks on postal carriers, according to the postal service. The agency hasn’t calculated the numbers since then.

Overall, reported dog bites in Greene County are declining. They were at a 10-year low in 2011 with 82 dog bites reported compared to 148 bites in 2001. In 2012, there were 95 dog bites, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

Under Springfield’s ordinances regulating animals, owners of dogs at large can be fined at least $10 for each offense. Anyone who violates the ordinance more than three times in 18 months shall be fined at least $200 for the fourth offense and offenses after that in an 18-month period.

Postal carriers also are allowed to cut off mail delivery to addresses with problem dogs. Orange warning cards — tucked into the mail between bills and letters that need to be delivered — remind mail carriers about addresses that have dangerous dogs.